September 6, 2010~Bon Voyage

Labor Day.  We drove to Tampa where we caught our connecting flight to Atlanta.  We had about a four hour wait before our Air France flight would depart for Paris.

There were lots of displays throughout the concourse to keep us occupied.  One was of items confiscated from customs; these included an elephant's foot and a whole case full of various ivory items,  very large carvings down to small delicate carved earrings.

Another display was of Kid's Art.  I loved this particular collage project.  There were about a dozen of collaged lions...all so very cute.

If the WiFi had worked in the airport, the waiting time would have flown by...there were some very disgruntled people sitting around.

The flight was great.  The plane was a 747 and our seats were up front in the upper part that used to be a lounge area.  Each seat had it's own screen and there were many audio-video choices.  I watched a wonderful documentary titled "Les Bebes" (Babies).  It followed the 1st year of life of 4 babies from very different parts of the world; USA, Japan, Africa and Mongolia.  At one year old, it was surprising to see the developmental differences in these 4 babies. (It's available on Netflix.)

I managed to sleep through a good part of the flight and we arrived in Paris at 8:10am September 7th.  The shuttle driver arranged by PariStay was waiting for us and we were soon on our way into Paris.....though not as quickly as usual because there was a general strike going on.  Most public transportation was not running, so the roads were packed.  The ride that usually takes 45 minutes, took well over an hour.  Our driver called Frederic, our PariStay agent, and he arrived quickly to greet us and show us to the apartment.

 OUR APARTMENT   15 rue du Louvre

 The apartment was exactly as it appeared on the website and it did have a phone which we were concerned about not having.  Frederic showed us how to use everything and it was during the demostration that we found that the TV did not work.  He said he would contact the owner about that.  After getting all the "business" taken care, and a bit disconcerted that we had no TV, we rested before heading out to find the nearest supermarche and explore.

Our apt building on rue du Louvre

Our apartment building is the largest one on the left side of the street.  There were businesses, medical offices located on the first couple floors.  We were on the 6th floor!

This the G 20  supermarche one block from the apt.

This is where we did most of our shopping.  Very convenient!  Just a block from the apartment.

More views of and from our apartment...



Looking out the living room window which faces the courtyard.

 

Looking down into the courtyard.



The fountain in the center of the courtyard.

 

Our apt is the top floor 3rd window from the right.

 We called Dick and Judy (Woody's brother and sister-in-law) and arranged to meet for lunch near the Embassy the next day.  Then went to the G 20 for provisions; brioche bread, milk, eggs, crackers, cheese, salami, kleenex (mouchoirs), diet Coke, water, raspberry jam (confiture framboise) and a bag of Werthers candies.  These are our staples~all the makings for French Toast and snacks.

Monsieur Sitbon (the owner) came by at about 7pm.  He checked out the TV, called the cable company and arranged to get a replacement cable box.  He was young, spoke excellent English (he is a trader at Credit Agricole) and very congenial.  I am so glad we had the opportunity to meet him.

For dinner, I checked my trusty itinerary trip guide and selected one of the restaurants very close to the apt. called Hippotamus.  It was touted to have the best hamburgers in town.  It was close to the apt., just a block from the G 20 and Woody's burger was very good.

I don't know what kind of onions they
  were but they sure were tastey

 I had the beef brochette with vegetables and it too was tender and tastey.  (Usually beef isn't the meat of choice in France.) The restaurant was a good choice.  We were quite satisfied (and I was pleased that my research paid off.)

We then returned to unpack and crash for the night.